DC

If you’ve seen Parks and Rec, you may remember a scene from Season 3 called “Soulmates.” Ann (Rashida Jones) helps Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) set up an online dating profile by asking about her hobbies, how she would describe herself, and finally, “Favorite Place?”

Leslie: Upstairs there’s this mural of wildflowers, and I like to sit on a bench in front of it.

Ann: Really? It could be anywhere in the world: Paris, Hawaii, the Grand Canyon…

Leslie: Nope. Just the bench in front of the mural.

Ann: What about an actual meadow, where wildflowers are?

Leslie: Eww, Ann, I’m scared of bees. Mural!

Although Ann thinks Leslie’s ideal destination is kinda lame, Leslie doesn’t budge; she likes what she likes. And it turns out, the spot is also liked by Leslie’s (future) favorite person as well, Ben (Adam Scott).

A favorite place doesn’t have to be lofty and expensive (or it can, whatever floats your boat), but it should be somewhere you enjoy going, solo or not. It just needs to be a place where you can pause, step back from the day-to-day tension, and just take a breath.

Regardless of the ending of the episode (or the numerous other times Ben and Leslie chat by the mural), I love that ambitious, compassionate, imaginative Leslie chose somewhere so seemingly mundane as her favorite place.

Along with our love of breakfast food, Leslie and I have that in common.

In my last post, I paid homage to Millennial, the Radiotopia/PRX podcast that gave me the post-grad motivation to intern, work part-time, but mostly, figure out what I really wanted to do and make no apologies for it.

What I’m Reading: (Fiction) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (B/N: Yes, I’ve seen the movie but now, at the behest of a friend, taking a stab at the book too).

(Fiction) The Lost Coast(novella) by Eli Horowitz and Josh Brandon (B/N: A companion to the Homecoming podcast serial and so far, pretty good)

What I’m Watching: (DVD) Creed (2015), dir. by Ryan Coogler is the latest in the Rocky movie series, but focuses on the son of Apollo Creed, Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan). Considering the attention last week’s fight received, I figured now was a time to see a more cinematic version of the boxing world. As a big fan of the Rocky movies (my favorites are Rocky I and Rocky II), I loved this shift of focus onto a character who, like Rocky and Apollo, is proud of his identity even if he’s still figuring out who that person is.